Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that my workplace has a cafeteria, or else I would have gone without lunch yesterday.  

On my trek to work, the driver in front of me came to a complete stop in the middle of the road, so I slammed on my breaks and everything that wasn’t strapped in via seatbelt flew to the floorboard.  Today I am seat belting my lunch in with me.

I am thankful for cocoa powder, cinnamon, and a pinch of cayenne in my iced coffee.  Next level stuff.

I am thankful for the resurgence of Ina’s energy, playfulness, and smiles.

Having a sick kid is absolutely no fun, and seeing her smile fully return along with her courage to climb things and say, “Mommy, WATCH!” as she jumps has been great.   

I am thankful for my run/walk yesterday.

Ina and I ran to meet my friend Hannah to walk, and then ran home.  Apparently Hannah ran home too!  I told her to watch out, because running can be addicting, but I would love to have another running buddy.  

I am thankful that Ina was patient enough yesterday to help me make “dinner,” which was pretty much me chopping up random vegetables (peppers, squash, onion) and throwing in some ground turkey and taco seasoning. Surprisingly, it was pretty good.  Note - planning for leftovers doesn’t work when there aren’t any leftovers.

I am thankful for my mother-in-law, who drove over 2.5 hours round trip to pick up Ina because Dan and I couldn’t meet them.  Ina was very happy to see her granny and happily climbed into her arms and said, “bye, bye Mommy.”  

What are you thankful for?

Five Words

Hand washing = Ina’s favorite activity.

Spaghetti squash crusted kale quiche.

Morning walk with Ina Mae.

Legs exhausted from spin class.

Beautiful weather means outside snack.

One pot wonder was wonderful.

Hebrews one - four: read it. 

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Cashed Out Workout + Ina's New Trampoline

Good morning!

I slept through my first night of many without waking up to crying, choking, or gagging, so today has got to be a good one, right?  

Ina is obviously feeling much better.  

One day, my darling, you will jump and both feet will come off the floor. and you will feel like you can do anything. Then, years later, you will do T25 and wish you never ever learned how to jump.

Ina's papa brought her this little trampoline and I can already tell it is going to be a living room favorite.  Ina kept saying, “Mamma - bump!” But, when I hopped on, she saw how much fun I was having and immediately wanted to jump instead.  I got quite the workout just playing with Ina.  

Speaking of workouts, I finished mine yesterday feeling completely cashed.  First I did sprints (5 min warmup; 1 min sprint, 2 min normal pace x2; 1 min sprint, 1 min normal pace x4; 30 sec sprint, 30 second normal pace x 4).  I ended up going a little over 2.5 miles in 22 minutes and there were puddles of sweat collecting in the treadmill cup holders when I was done. I almost took a picture, but then remembered that there is an over-sharing line, and sweat isn’t worth crossing it. 

After sprints I did this arm burner, and when I reached the last set of push-ups my spaghetti arms laughed at me.  

 

(Also, I need that kale shirt ASAP!) 

 I owe you guys a full review of T25, but one thing it did teach me is to give every workout my all, which is hard to do for me while running, because it is so easy to get into my running groove.  Adding in things like sprints and arm workouts mixes things up and creates a challenge.  

Another challenge?  Using all the vegetables I get in my CSA before I get my next box.  Let me tell you, I love vegetables, and this is tough.  But, I am determined to do it this week and only have a few things left (green beans, squash, kolhrabi, and cucumbers).  

Last night I put a dent in my green bean supply by making almond meal chicken fingers, roasted green beans, pesto brown rice, and sliced tomatoes.  

Have you tried almond meal chicken fingers? Dan absolutely loves them, mostly because I add extra cayenne to his.  However, I told Ina they were chicken nuggets and she took a bite, shook her head, and politely pushed it aside.  Ha!  

I think that is all the rambling I have time for today.  I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday!

Muah!

The Webster House Brunch

Happy Monday! 

Our weekend started out kind of rough, but yesterday was a solid improvement.

I started it out with a fast (for me) 3 mile run.  

Then an awesome church service, followed by meeting a few of our good friends at The Webster House for brunch.

The Webster House is quite the place.  The bottom level is a store full of the cutest antiques and new stuff, and the next level is the restaurant, which has a farm to table focus.  

The food was unreal

and the company was even better.

After brunch we headed to Amigoni, an urban winery we have been to before.  We enjoyed a tasting,

and then played a game of Apples to Apples in the atrium.  

I was one card away from winning!

We left Ina at home with her papa, so I was excited to get home and play outside with her for a little bit.  We wrapped the day up another farm dinner - roasted pork tenderloin, broccoli, and beets [that I had in the oven all at the same time], and a mountain of sliced tomatoes.  

So good.

Yesterday was the wind-down I needed to the week ahead.  Let’d make it a good one.  

My Weekly Food and Fitness Plan #46

Happy Sunday!  

I hope your weekend has been fantastic so far.  Ours?  Notsomuch.

On Friday, after I told you about Ina being sick, she was OK for a few hours - enough for us to go on a run.  

Then, things went downhill fast.  She got sick in the shower a little bit.  Then she got sick all over the house a lot more.

I had already made a doctor’s appointment for her suspected ear infection, so when we showed up the doctor was slightly confused, because apparently ear infections and upchuck don’t usually go together.

But Ina is an unusual child, and she had some type of bug that made her completely empty her stomach all day, along with an ear infection, and cutting her canine teeth.  After taking some medicine, she eventually stopped, but was horribly sick all day and night Friday.

After changing my clothes 3 times, I eventually gave up and owned the vomit residue look.

She turned the corner Saturday morning, which Dan and I are so thankful for.  

She still has ear and teething pain, but is mostly back to her same old self - the one who empties the Jello container all over my freshly cleaned carpet while Daddy was supposed to be putting her down for her nap and put himself down for a nap instead. 

The week can only get better from here.  

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Food

• Sunday: crockpot pork roast with roasted broccoli and summer squash cakes
• Monday: almond meal chicken fingers with roasted beets and green beans
• Tuesday: one pot wonder [will likely add some garlic sausage to the recipe]
• Wednesday: leftovers
• Thursday: spicy Thai beef with brown rice
• Friday: church function
• Saturday: spending the night at Granny and Papa’s 

Fitness

• Sunday: 3 mile run
• Monday: sprints + sun’s out, guns out arm burner
• Tuesday: spin class
• Wednesday: 1000 m swim
• Thursday: 6 mile run
• Friday: 3 mile run or video
• Saturday: rest

 What are you up to this week?

 

 

 

When to Take Kids to the Doctor?

Last night was rough.  (I wonder how many posts have started out like that since Ina was born?)

Ina came home from her grandparents’ with a 101.4* fever and acting like she didn’t feel well.  Once I gave her some ibuprofen, she went back to normal with the exception of not eating much dinner.  

I should also note that I convinced her to take the ibuprofen (which has always been a battle) by calling it “princess purple juice” and pretending to swallow it and turn into a princess by twirling, twisting my hair, and singing.  She of course loved it and has never taken medicine so fast.  Oh the things I will do for that kid.

However, when bedtime came she wasn’t having it.  She just kept rolling around, saying, “ow” and “all done, night night.”  When I asked her what hurt she would say weird things, like her back (because my back hurt a few days ago) and her armpit (because she likes when I kiss her armpit).  

As soon as the ibuprofen wore off she was awake again with a fever.  This time I gave her some ear pain drops and some ibuprofen, and she is finally restfully asleep.

So, the question is, and always has been when she is sick: Do I take her to the doctor?  

I have taken her when I was positive she had an ear infection, and she didn’t, which wasted our time, the doctor’s time, and our $25 co-pay.  But I have also put off going for a few days, only to find out that she did in fact have an infection and I had been ignoring it.  

I think the fact that I am a health care professional adds even more to my mental battle because I feel extra silly if nothing is wrong and extra incompetent if something is wrong and I ignored it.  One of my girlfriends who I went to school with bought an otoscope, so she could look in her son’s ear to see if he had an infection.  I think that is a great idea and will likely order one today.

I admit that I am a paranoid mom.  I don’t know if that is because of the way Ina was born, or if I would be paranoid regardless.  The first few weeks of her life I was ready to take her to Children’s Mercy more than a few times, for nothing.  Since that I have gotten better, I think.  

I will leave you with a few random pictures from yesterday:

- My sunshine breakfast of yellow pepper, corn, eggs, and a peach.  Have you tried corn in eggs yet?

- I squeezed in a short workout during lunch - but it was obviously effective judging by my red face and my sore legs today

- Our dinner last night - I used this recipe, but instead of stuffing the squash, I just chopped it up into tiny pieces and made a casserole.  

Dan was very skeptical at first and gave me the “what on Earth are you trying to feed me” look.  However, he took one bite and was a quinoa squash casserole convert.  

- Ina drinking from the OJ container.  Hopefully she isn’t contagious?

I hope you have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday

Good morning! 

We are over the hump and the weekend is almost here.  For that, I am thankful.

I am also thankful for the extra sleep I had this morning.  I set my alarm time for 5 am so I could get to an early morning spin class, but failed to turn the alarm on.  So, I woke up fresh as a daisy at 6.

I am thankful that Dan helped me out by doing the dishes last night because I really, really did not want to do them.

I am thankful for Jolly Time, the popcorn company who sells certified non-GMO popcorn.  Until I found this, I thought my husband was going to ban popcorn from my life forever.  

I am thankful that I called my dad to talk about weekend babysitting arrangements after a few strange text message answers.  It was a good thing I did, because we were not on the same page at all.  Sometimes text messages aren’t better.

I am thankful that Ina FINALLY said, “No, thank you.”  Instead of, “NOOOOOO.”   I have tried so many times to get her to say “thank you” after “no."  Then, a few days ago, Dan asked me if I wanted something and I answered, “No, thank you.” and she repeated me 5 times. 

Dan and I acted like this was the biggest deal in the world, praising her and clapping, in the hopes that it would stick.  We shall see.  

I am thankful for the cooling temperatures and copious amounts of shade I had during my 8 PM run last night.  Yesterday was one of those days my run kept on getting pushed back, but it felt so good to get a few miles in before bed.  

I am thankful for my life - really every single aspect of it.  I am one incredibly blessed lady.  

What are you thankful for?

I Don't Mean to Brag, but....

Good morning!  This is the post where I pretty much pat myself on the back the whole time, so if that kind of thing bothers you, just skip it.  I am sure I will be doing something not right again tomorrow.  Ha!

- I don’t mean to brag, but my daughter is pretty much a genius.  

Ina randomly counts all the time, and sometimes goes all the way up to 13 (skipping 7, of course)!  The first time she did that I was floored, because I have only taught her up to 10.  

She also poses for pictures and says “EEESE!”  on command, which is all I could ever really want as a mother.  

Danielle took her to the splash park yesterday and she had a blast.

- I don’t mean to brag, but last night’s dinner was pretty much amazing, and one that I thought of all by myself.  

I concocted some crockpot enchilada chicken and put it on top of baked polenta.  It was so good and went surprisingly well with the roasted okra.  Ina gobbled it up, and Dan said it was the in the “top 3” things I have ever made and requested it for dinner again tonight.  

I love creating things on my own, and putting ingredients in without measuring, I feel like a chef!  However, re-creating a good creation is always difficult, so I tried to write down my best guess.  

- I don’t mean to brag, but yesterday I feel like I got in my swimming groove.  

I figured out a way to hold my head so that I moved more quickly in the water.  Maybe I should have someone critique my form and let me know more ways that I can improve?  

OK, I think that is enough bragging for one day. 

What have you done lately that you want to brag about?  I would love to hear about it.  

Courageous

Hi!  

Yesterday was one of those days that started early and ended late, with not much rest in between.  Ironcially, it was a rest day from running due to my silly back, which is feeling much better today.  

I am hoping I can “swim it out” later this afternoon.  

A few things to note from yesterday:

- I made banana bread protein pancakes and added a few chocolate chips for Ina.  After I handed her the pancake, she put it on the floor, dug all the chocolate chips out, and handed it back to me.

Thanks Ina.  

- My new favorite kale salad combo is kale massaged in lemon juice EVOO, and sea salt, then topped with a chopped jalapeño, dried cherries, feta cheese, and walnuts.  So good!

- I have seen (portions of) the movie Frozen 3 times in the past 4 days. 

- We switched things up and had small group last night.  Taking a break from studying, we made some popcorn and watched the movie, Courageous.  

[image source] 

I laughed.  I cried.  I got goosebumps.  Watching this movie made me very thankful for the men in my life, and I am now interested in reading, The Resolution for Women.  

I recommend it for sure.  

Have a great day!  

 

Kansas City's Big Picnic + Other Weekend Things

Good morning!  How was your weekend?  Ours was pretty good - let’s start where it ended.

Last night we packed up our wagon and cooler and ventured out to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art for Kansas City’s big picnic.  

And a big picnic it was.  We met our friends Ashely and Brady and made the most of it by packing wine, cheese, crackers, sausage, and chips and mickey-mole.   (Side note: if you haven’t tried pears and stone ground mustard on your cheese and sausage, you don’t know what you are missing). 

The museum has a beautiful and huge lawn that we have always admired, but never been to.  When we pass it, Dan often says, “I just want to touch that grass.”  We can now check that off his bucket list. 

There were lots of activities and food trucks and even free samples of Blue Bell (too bad they flavor they had was full of gluten).  A theater company had people dressed up as huge ants, birds, bananas, etc. and Ina didn’t stop asking to see the “beak” or the “bug” but wanted to say about 10 feet away at all times.  Creeper.  

We also enjoyed the three-man drum team.  I tried to get Ina to dance, but she preferred to sit in my lap and watch.

This rarely happens, so I just soaked it all in.

The weather was amazing.  Ina was in a great mood (which is pretty rare lately).  We were with good friends we hadn’t seen in a long time.  It was just a perfect evening.

As we were walking back and I kept on thinking that this was one of those nights that really make my heart full. 

Our weekend started out great too - picking tomatoes in the garden,

and playing with hats.

My niece and nephew stayed the night Saturday night and we had a fun time.  

Those girls are going to be trouble in a few years.  

We threw a going away party for my cousin and her husband, who are moving, which is sad.  However, it was great to see family.  I wish I took pictures, but hosting a party while simultaneously trying to watching 3 toddlers takes a lot of effort.  Just picture me trying to find the trash bags while all three kids have to go to the bathroom at the same time and you should be good.  

Oh, and yesterday I ran 6 miles.

It has been a LONG time since I have run that far and I felt great the whole time.   However, my body is feeling not great today. My back started getting tight last night and I didn’t sleep well because it hurt.  This has never happened before, but I am praying it is nothing a hot shower, some ibuprofen, and an extra rest day won’t fix.  

Well, I think that is all the Ina pictures and ramblings you can take for one day, so I am out.  Have a wonderful week!

My Weekly Food and Fitness Plan #45

Good morning and Happy Sunday!

My weekend started off with my garden’s first red tomato - an awesome sign.  

I currently have three sleeping babies that will very soon be three awake babies in my house, so let’s get to it. 

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Food

• Sunday: we are going to Kansas City’s Big Picnic and taking a few snacky-type foods
• Monday: a modified (re: easier) version of chicken tamale burrito bowls with kale salad
• Tuesday: easy slow cooker pasta sauce with brown rice pasta and sautéed zucchini
• Wednesday: leftovers
• Thursday: stuffed pattypan squash (banking on the fact that I will get a few more pattypans in my CSA)
• Friday: grilled marinated chicken, corn on the cob, and grilled veggies
• Saturday: tailgating at the Royals game

Fitness

• Sunday: 3 mile run
• Monday: sprints + arms
• Tuesday: 6 mile run
• Wednesday: 1000 m swim
• Thursday: spin class
• Friday: 4 mile run
• Saturday: rest

What are you up to this week?

Two-a-Day

Yesterday I did a brick - triathlon training is on its way!  Now I just need to sign up for the event (minor detail).  

Do bricks still count when the workouts are separated by 8 hours of sitting at a desk?  Likely not, so I guess I just did a two-a-day.  

Ugh - typing that brought back some not so good memories of volleyball practice in the summer when I loathed exercise.  Now I am doing it willingly.  Funny how things change, huh?

I swam before work,

and after work met up with my friend/neighbor/teacher/therapist/esthetician/running buddy for a very fun 3 miles.  

When I returned home from the run, Ina was back!

Man, I missed that girl - 36 hours is just way too long.  (If it were up to her, she would have a peach in her hand 24/7)

While I roasted a chicken (that I picked up at the farmer’s market a few weeks ago),

we did some more yard work - which of course included picking the 5 blackberries that had ripened while Ina was away.

I am so ready for the weekend!  Who’s with me?  

I am off to do some T25 before Ina wakes up. Have a good one!